Explanation In this week’s issue, the article below, “The dreaded ‘L’ Word,”created some confusion. We re-checked the rankings the way the National Journal reported them. For U.S. Rep. John Fleming, we inadvertently reversed the rankings. It should have been 406th most liberal or 26th most conservative. That means he is at No. 406 out of 435 members on the liberal index. In other words, in the rankings, only 25 members in the House are rated more conservative than Fleming and 410 are rated more liberal. So, let’s do the conservative to liberal ratings and see if that clarifies things: *U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) – 44th most conservative out of 100 senators; 56th most liberal. *U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R) – 12th most conservative or 88th most liberal. *U.S. Rep. John Fleming (R-4th District) – Out of 435 members, he is the 26th most conservative or the 406th most liberal. *U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-1st District) – 4th most conservative or 427th most liberal. *U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-2nd District) – 262nd most conservative or 170th most liberal. *U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-3rd District) – 152nd most conservative or 279th most liberal. *U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-5th District) – 189th most conservative or 243rd most liberal. *U.S . Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-6th District) – 49th most conservative or 381st most liberal.

The dreaded ‘L Word’ The ratings are out on Louisiana’s Congressional delegation revealing just how liberal – or conservative – each member is compared to the rest of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. The study was done by the National Journal, a non-partisan and respected publication in Washington, D.C., looking at key votes made in 2013. Here are the rankings: *U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) – 44th most liberal out of 100 senators, or the 56th most conservative. *U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R) – 88th most liberal out of 100 senators, or the 12th most conservative. * U.S. Rep. John Fleming (R-4th District) – 26th most liberal out of 435 representatives, or 406th most conservative. (The rankings were reversed. Should have been 406th most liberal or 26th most conservative) * U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-1st District) – 427th most liberal, or 4th most conservative. *U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-2nd District ) – 170th most liberal, or 262nd most conservative. *U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-3rd District) – 279th most liberal, or 152nd most conservative.*U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-5th District) – 243rd most liberal, or 189th most conservative. He is no longer a member of Congress. *U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-6th District) – 381st most liberal, or 49th most conservative. If that is a bit confusing, here are the rankings put another way. Of the votes studied... Landrieu cast liberal votes 58% of the time. Vitter’s liberal votes -- 14%. Fleming’s liberal votes – 13%. Scalise’s liberal votes – 6%. Richmond’s liberal votes – 62%. Boustany’s liberal votes – 32%. Alexanders’s liberal votes 40%. Cassidy’s liberal votes – 16%. We hope this clears things up. If not, just look at the end where it says what percentage of liberal votes each member made among those used in the rankings.***End of Clarification Page***